Shelley Conn
Conn on the set of Heartbeat in 2016
Born	Shelley Deborah Conn (1976-09-21) 21 September 1976 (age 47) Barnet, North London, England
Education	Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (BA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present
Spouse	Jonathan Kerrigan ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	1

Shelley Deborah Conn (born 21 September 1976) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Lady Mary Sharma in Bridgerton, as Isabella in the film Love Sarah, as Dr Elizabeth Shannon in the Spielberg series Terra Nova, as Beelzebub in the second season of Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, and Indira Shetty in The Boys spin-off series Gen V, both for Amazon Prime Video.

Early life and education

Conn was born in Barnet in north London to Anglo-Indian parents. She is of mixed heritage, which includes Portuguese, Burmese and Indian.^[1][2] She attended Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke and Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.^[3] Conn trained at Bretton Hall. She was a student at Cranbourne School in Basingstoke.

Career

After drama school, Conn had a series of small roles in various British films, before coming to prominence when she starred as Ashika Chandiramani in the BBC series Party Animals. In 2001, she picked up the role of PC Miriam Da Silva in BBC1's Mersey Beat and an irregularly recurring role in Casualty. In 2002, Conn made her West End theatre stage debut in three plays in December 2002, after transferring from Stratford-upon-Avon in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Jacobean Season at the Gielgud Theatre – The Island Princess, Eastward Ho! and The Roman Actor.

Conn has appeared television, film and theatre, with a series of leading roles in various small budget European as well as British films namely BBC character dramas such as The Innocence Project, and occasional returns to the RSC. Conn joined Series Five of the popular BBC One series Down to Earth in 2004. In early 2008, Conn starred as Miranda Hill in The Palace, as Jessica in Mistresses and as Neela Sahjani in Trial & Retribution. In 2008 she appeared as Claire in Dead Set. In 2010 she played Danni Prendiville in the TV series Strike Back.

She was chosen by Steven Spielberg to be one of the leads in the $150 million TV series Terra Nova, which premiered on 26 September 2011.^[4] In 2014, Conn appeared in a US TV series called The Lottery.^[5]

Conn starred as Mary Sharma in the second series of the Netflix romance period drama Bridgerton based on Julia Quinn's second novel in her Bridgerton series, The Viscount Who Loved Me.^[6] The series was released in March 2022.

Personal life

Conn lives in London and is married to fellow actor Jonathan Kerrigan; they have a son together, born in 2012.

She ran in the 2006 London Marathon.^[7]

Filmography